Everyone knew a break was going to go. And it was quite a tangle to get someone in the decisive and final move of the day, particularly for the Belgian Quickstep and French Bouygues Telecom teams.

They are two of the teams who are under pressure to get a result before the Tour ends on Sunday.

I can imagine that their team meetings are pretty heated on these last days.

When that first attack went right from the start - I think it might even have gone before kilometre zero - and with eventual winner Marcus Burghardt (Team Columbia) in it there was a pretty serious chase against them by Quickstep and Bouygues Telecom.

That break was shut down by the 48km mark after which the first hour of racing passed at an average speed of 55.7km/h - so much for a break after the Alps.

But a break was still going to go sometime. It was on the cards. I think everyone was scared about hitting that first categorised climb - the third category La Parmenie to 78km - without one going.

If it hadn't of gone, then the climb would have been hard as the stage win would still be up for grabs and therefore prompt an aggressive climb by the peloton. So a few guys were keen to let something go. And go they did ...

The race pace kept up though, as the peloton went down with a tail wind on a false flat. Obviously there were a few pretty motivated directors with earpieces trying to get their guys in front too.

Finally, it was Carlos Barredo (Quickstep) who went at 68km. Then he was pursued by Burghardt and Romain Feillu (Agritubel) - who would later join him. Then Euskaltel-Euskadi sent Mikel Astarloza across and that is when our bloke Christophe Le Mevel jumped out to spend all day in no-man's land.

In the peloton, guys were wincing and realised how sore their legs were with every little rise. No one wanted to race over the climbs.

They were just happy to let CSC - or more so Australian Stuart O'Grady - ride tempo. He was out front pretty much the whole day. However, CSC still believed that they could win today's stage.

They missed the first break, chased it, then got someone up the road in a white jersey - Andy Schleck - before Caisse d'Epargne started chasing his five-man group to finish 11 seconds behind them.www.simongerrans.com

By Simon Gerrans

Posted
by SMH OnlineJuly 25, 2008 1:21 PM

LATEST COMMENTS

Well done Simon,
It's been a great race this year.
Your win at Prato Nevoso gave everyone here much enjoyment. The phone rang here constantly straight after the race... Everyone is on your case.I'll be glad when it's over... You can have a rest and I can get some sleep
Cheers Michael Hulse